Question about Editing

[ragingrage]

Is there any reason that you can see the previous posts when you make a new post, but not when you edit one?

[NerfTW]

Because that was the design decision of the people who wrote vBulletin. (Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.)

That's really the best you'll get here, since nobody here wrote the code. You could go to the vBulletin site (https://www.vbulletin.com/) and ask there.

[Trixie]

Actually, yes, people here wrote the code, because this forum is in big part custom-tailored by the admins. In fact, I'd risk the statement that majority of the user interaction code here on the site is not, in fact Jelsoft's untouched code, just like tuning cars have little to do with regular brands, so the question is valid and can get much better answer from Rawhide.

[InaVegt]

Actually, yes, people here wrote the code, because this forum is in big part custom-tailored by the admins. In fact, I'd risk the statement that majority of the user interaction code here on the site is not, in fact Jelsoft's untouched code, just like tuning cars have little to do with regular brands, so the question is valid and can get much better answer from Rawhide.

I doubt this. While it is true that this board has been modified heavily, I'm pretty sure that the majority of the code is still Jelsoft's.

Especially the edit feature, which works exactly like every other vBulletin board I've seen (taking into account that this board does not have quick reply enabled, and therefor always enters advanced mode by default.)

[Trixie]

I doubt this. While it is true that this board has been modified heavily, I'm pretty sure that the majority of the code is still Jelsoft's.

Especially the edit feature, which works exactly like every other vBulletin board I've seen (taking into account that this board does not have quick reply enabled, and therefor always enters advanced mode by default.)

<shrug> maybe, but the level of customization is such the admins probably know well most often used sections of the code, including documentation and code comments, and can offer much better insight why something works the way it does and what the intent was than any random user off the street.

[bluewind95]

I would hazard the guess that the thought behind the showing the previous posts with a new reply but not an edit would have been along these lines: when you make a new post, you are writing a totally new idea and may need to read previous ideas to formulate it properly. When you edit, you are simply adding something, perhaps something you forgot or whatnot. At any rate, you probably already have the idea formed, already read what you needed to read, etc. Therefore, it's not "necessary" to show other posts and resources are conserved and they're not shown.

I would think (though I may be mistaken) that the overall behaviour of posting and the ways in which the server handles them are part of the "core" of the board software, and thus provided in a way that's generic and requires few adjustments, if any. If the entire behaviour of posting were to be programmed entirely by the staff here, there would be little benefit in using an established software for the boards- they'd just have made their own. Seems more to me like the whole behaviour is already pre-programmed and the options can be added or adjusted (colors, buttons for extra behaviours, adding fields, etc). Modifying and customizing those things and keeping the board's behaviour consistent would be enough work without entirely changing the way the board fetches and posts, well, posts.

This is just my guess, though.

[KillianHawkeye]

Most editing tasks (i.e., correcting spelling/grammar, restructuring your text to ensure better readability, etc.) don't require other posts to be displayed, so they are not.

Personally, I suspect that editing one's post (rather than creating a new post) to respond to someone who posted while you were creating your own lengthy post is a behavior that was not anticipated by the creators of the software.

[Rawhide]

Many people here have taken a good guess, but if you want to know for certain why it was done that way, you will need to contact Jelsoft.